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MEGATHREAD - The 'What Subjects Should I Do' Megathread

Reply 780

lazytomato

9

just keep them all, A2 is not that much of work if you have the passion for your sujects

Reply 781

chocolatetoastedrice

i'm currently in year 11 and hope to study medicine at university

realistically, i hope to achieve all a*s apart from one a at gcse and have chosen to study maths, chemistry, physics and french at a level.
i know there are a handful of universities that accept applicants who haven't done biology but i really have a passion for physics and enjoy it as a subject - and i don't want to give up french as i love studying it and don't really want to do purely sciences.

so, do you have any advice - would i be at a great disadvantage if i didn't have biology? my school doesn't let me pick 5 a levels so i'm kind of stuck here.

Reply 782

Sukh_-007

thanks alot :smile:

)))

Reply 783

Courtenayyy

7

You'd definitely be at a hugeeeee disadvantage without A level biology.
Even if you did get accepted into a Med school without it, there would be a LOT (and I mean A LOT) for you to catch up on.

Reply 784

Nymthae

16

You'll need Biology. Biol/Chem are minimum, really.

How sure are you on med? It might end up that you want to carry on doing Physics if you take it, so hm.

(edited 12 years ago)

Lurk before posting

Okay guys, I know there are trillions of threads like this, but mine is a little different.
I've picked the following subjects for AS:

Biology
Chemistry
Physics
History

Biology and Chemistry are obvious definites, and I've made the choice to do Physics as an alternative to Maths. History is the wildcard here - part of the reason I'm taking it is because I am confident in my ability. If my sciences were to slip to AAB (heaven forbid! :P) then history could bring that up to AAA.
So, I have two questions:

1. What is A-Level Physics like without Maths? Is it tough? Is the relevant Maths covered in the course, or are you assumed to know it?

2. How useful is a history qualification for a medical application? It may be entirely unrelated, but is it good to have a humanity in order to show versatility, and ability to provide a reasoned argument? Have any medical students done history A-Level, and if they have, what comments did the interviewer have on the qualification?

Thanks for your time :biggrin:

Reply 787

thesalamander123

11

jj.

how is yours different?

I haven't seen anything about history and medicine.

Reply 788

italienmoose

7

I was always told history would be a good subject for medicine.

Reply 789

nerdman09

11

thesalamander123

Okay guys, I know there are trillions of threads like this, but mine is a little different. (a)
I've picked the following subjects for AS:

Biology
Chemistry
Physics
History

Biology and Chemistry are obvious definites, and I've made the choice to do Physics as an alternative to Maths. History is the wildcard here - part of the reason I'm taking it is because I am confident in my ability. If my sciences were to slip to AAB (heaven forbid! :P) then history could bring that up to AAA.
So, I have two questions:

1. What is A-Level Physics like without Maths? Is it tough? Is the relevant Maths covered in the course, or are you assumed to know it?

2. How useful is a history qualification for a medical application? It may be entirely unrelated, but is it good to have a humanity in order to show versatility, and ability to provide a reasoned argument? Have any medical students done history A-Level, and if they have, what comments did the interviewer have on the qualification? (b)

Thanks for your time :biggrin:

(a) No its not. Physics without maths isn't bad, as long as you can rearrange algebra, use standard form and use logs (but they're simple enough)

(b) Interviewers don't give a **** about whether you take history or not. They ask for chemistry and one other science a-level, hence the third one can be entirely your choice.
Believe me, picking your A-levels is the least of your problems... but I'm sure you'll find that out soon enough :wink:

Reply 790

gildartz

14

dude, seriously, don't understimate history. I'm taking it and it's by far the subject that i'm struggling the most in since the amount of content you need to learn is such a large step up from GCSE.

Reply 791

vertigo.0012

13

Some unis prefer a contrasting arts subject, some don't, most don't care. In any case, I doubt it'd have a massive effect on your application, so do what you want to do.

Reply 792

thesalamander123

11

nerdman09

(a) No its not. Physics without maths isn't bad, as long as you can rearrange algebra, use standard form and use logs (but they're simple enough)

(b) Interviewers don't give a **** about whether you take history or not. They ask for chemistry and one other science a-level, hence the third one can be entirely your choice.
Believe me, picking your A-levels is the least of your problems... but I'm sure you'll find that out soon enough :wink:

Yes, it appears that there's a whole load of extra problems once you've worked your arse off to get the AAA minimum requirement, judging from the volumes of students moaning (and rightly so) that they got rejected by loads of unis which insane applicants to places ratios.

Reply 793

thesalamander123

11

gildartz

dude, seriously, don't understimate history. I'm taking it and it's by far the subject that i'm struggling the most in since the amount of content you need to learn is such a large step up from GCSE.

orly? I'm doing Nazi Germany and Medicine through time for GCSE and it feels like there is SO MUCH to learn. The exam board my school uses does a load of Russian stuff for A-Level, hmmmm.

Reply 794

Ezraeil

15

thesalamander123

1. What is A-Level Physics like without Maths? Is it tough? Is the relevant Maths covered in the course, or are you assumed to know it?

At AS,I took Physics(AQA) along with Maths-Mechanics(Edexcel). I found mechanics really useful as I could then apply those concepts to the mechanics in unit 2 in physics. At A2,there isn't much maths really,just need to be able to work with logs.

Across the two years,you need to be handy with numbers and be able to work with them well,as you'll be asked to work with a fair few equations.

Reply 795

Jessaay!

15

I would like to point out first that this is NO different to SO MANY of the other threads. So similar it's actually frustrating.

Generic response (no idea about the physics + not sure I care):

Some universities prefer a contrasting subject, others don't give a ****.

Less generic response:

The content of history A-level itself will probably be of no more use to you in medicine than any other subjects like it, but if you're interested in it go ahead, at least you have chemistry and biology.

Reply 796

thesalamander123

11

SyedT

At AS,I took Physics(AQA) along with Maths-Mechanics(Edexcel). I found mechanics really useful as I could then apply those concepts to the mechanics in unit 2 in physics. At A2,there isn't much maths really,just need to be able to work with logs.

Across the two years,you need to be handy with numbers and be able to work with them well,as you'll be asked to work with a fair few equations.

thanks for the info

Reply 797

Single Malt

6

gildartz

dude, seriously, don't understimate history. I'm taking it and it's by far the subject that i'm struggling the most in since the amount of content you need to learn is such a large step up from GCSE.

History A level is not about the vastness of knowledge, but the diligent application of it. I went from a C to full marks in module 1 just by learning how examiners want essays to be formatted...

Reply 798

thesalamander123

11

Jessaay!

I would like to point out first that this is NO different to SO MANY of the other threads. So similar it's actually frustrating.

Generic response (no idea about the physics + not sure I care):

Some universities prefer a contrasting subject, others don't give a ****.

Less generic response:

The content of history A-level itself will probably be of no more use to you in medicine than any other subjects like it, but if you're interested in it go ahead, at least you have chemistry and biology.

Fair point!

Reply 799

thesalamander123

11

Single Malt

History A level is not about the vastness of knowledge, but the diligent application of it. I went from a C to full marks in module 1 just by learning how examiners want essays to be formatted...

Yes, so true. I went from a C to full marks A* in my Geography DME, completely cocked it up first time round, waffled on for ages and ran out of time. For the retake, I did around half an hours revision on actual content. The rest of the time I spent working on my exam techniques, and on the day of the exam I listened to Radio 4, a stephen fry podcast and read the guardian, which left me in quite an articulate mood. When I sat down in the exam, it just all flowed out.